$400-500 Electric?
 

I've decided to get an electric guitar, I just don't know which one. Before I head to Guitar Center to try some out, I just wanted some input to some good brands/models in that price range. I was looking at a Fender Amercian Series but I think thats a little more expensive. Any input is greatly appreciated!

It depends what king of sound you're after...

Epiphone LP standards are in that price range.

If you can go up to the $600-700 range you can get a Music Man Super Sport off of ebay (made by Ernie Ball). These are great guitars! New they sell for $1200-1800, depending on the options.
The SS plays wonderfully and has a nice bright rock tone (great for playing with OD).

Fender standard series Telecaster. I love mine and, to my eye and ear (and everybody else's I've had heard it) not a licks difference between the standard ones and the "American Series" at twice the price. Some people on the Fender bulletin board have actually noted that the standard MIM models are sometimes much better.

I'm a Tele guy, so I can't speak for the features on the Strat, but for the money, I haven' t heard a bad thing about either one of them. Under $400. So, for your $600-700, you could have a Fender guitar and an amp.....or at $700, you could probably have a Strat AND a Tele. Now, be careful, you want the "Fender" branding, not the "Squier by Fender" branding. There is a noticeable difference, to me, in quality between Fender flagship and Squier.

To Samchar's point, I have an American Strat Standard, and my friend has the same guitar but made somewhere else at half the price. I've played both and both sound pretty good to me. I'm no electric expert, but someday when I decide to buy my first Telecaster, it will be the one that's half the price of the American version - I think they're made in Mexico, but I could be wrong.

I love my American Strats. A great alternative for the price is the new TRIBUTE series of G&L. They are asian made but with US pickups and good hardware. I would put them a notch below the US Fender and above the Mexi Fender for a hair more than the Mexi Fender price.

I've read some good things about low-end EVH Wolfgang models from Peavey and low-end Santana and Tremonti models from PRS. No experience with them though.

Here's a Guitar Player Editor's Pick review to check out

http://www.guitarplayer.com/archive/...enchtests2.htm

Gibson's low-end SGs also get good write-ups.

i havethe perfect guitar for you. its 500 dollars to. its a yamaha aes620....check it out it won two huge awards and alot of pro's use it to. and its only 500...i have one and its better than the american strat i sepent 1300 for

Try out a Highway 1 strat - made in US - or a standard/mexican strat excellent guitars for their price. Used Jimmie Vaughan Tex-Mex strats if you can find one go for around 500.00 and are excellent guitars.

If you get a strat, might I humbly suggest the Robert Cray MIM model. To me, feels and looks better than the other MIM strats. And does anyone actually use the trem on their strat? I never did. My robert cray (with it's hardtail bridge) stays in tune very nicely. The pickups are pretty good sounding for stock pickups in this price range, too, IMO. I will be replacing them with some noiseless pickups soon, but that's because I just can't stand the noise when I play at church. Something about the light dimmers there is just awful.

The only caveat is the thicker neck. I am getting used to it, though.

Geoff

Oh yeah, I do love that Jimmie Vaghan Tex-Mex strat.

Also, if I had $700 to buy an electric, I can tell you I might consider getting one of the Teles that either has a middle pickup or where the neck pickup is a humbucker.....as long as that bridge pickup was single coil for that TWANG. But, I'd love to have a humbucker on that front position.

Side note for your electric guitar guys out there: how much rocket science and/or money is involved in putting a humbucker in the front position of an existing Tele?

all that said, I really like the sound of a neck humbucker. I really don't like the sound of a bridge humbucker when playing clean. The Tele layout with a neck bucker and a single in the bridge would be nearly ideal.

I believe that the new American Series Tele is routed for a neck humbucker, a middle single coil and a humbucking bridge so they can do the same body for all the pickup combinations.

FENDER!!

I have a Fender Nashville power Telecaster that I bought used for $500 incl. hardcase and it is a great guitar. The bridge has a piezo built in for an acoustic-electric sound, the neck and bridge pups are standard Tele's and the middle pup is a strat. This thing rocks for country, blues and rock! It comes with a special cord to run to 2 different amps. Definately worth a look.

Look for a used G&L Legacy. Its basically a Strat, but hand made in the old Fender factory in Fullerton, California. You can find them for $500 and its MUCH higher in quality that any Fender you'll find in that price range.

Give Nashville Used Music a call. They had one last week for $595 and they always go down a bit if you bargain with them.

Nashville Used Music

I would concur 100% with this analysis. I'm tellin' you ARL002, unless you just have some kinda bad preconception against a Fender Telecaster bridge sound (some do -- an aversion to twang), I don't think you could go wrong with a Tele with a neck humbucker. They are out there. They've got all the sound a guy would need for blues, rock, country, and everything in between. Case-and-point: Keith Richards. It's what he plays. Personally, I don't think you can beat the electric guitar vibe on "Main Offender", "Voodoo Lounge", etc.